The next morning we
went scuba diving with Stevie Cartwright, Paul Brewin, Sarah Lee and Simon
Browning of the Falklands Shallow Marine Surveys Group (SMSG) – our friends
from the Painted Shrimp Expedition to Ascension Island in September last year.
Stevie took us to Port William north of Stanley Harbour – a coastline with a
splendid giant kelp forest and close to Beatrice Cove, where I had a marvellous
dive in December 2010 (when I met a pod of Comerson’s dolphins and a southern
sea lion – plus a new species recordfor
the Falklands, Syringoderma australe,
all in one dive). Giant kelp (Macrocystis
pyrifera) is the largest alga in the World. Up to at least 60 m long, it
can grow up to around 30 cm per day!!
Not surprisingly, it occurs in impressive forest-like communities on the
Pacific coast of North and South America as well as the sub-Antarctic
region.

Diving
in giant kelp, with patches of light coming in through small gaps in the
canopy, gives me a feeling similar to that of being in a tall cathedral –
adding to this the feeling of weightlessness in neutral buoyancy makes for a
very special experience.

Once we moored the boat, with Simon and
Sarah already under water and Alexandra, Paul, Steve and me on the boat,
suddenly again a pod of Comerson’s dolphins showed up, just around 3 m in front
of us – but they didn’t stay around this time. Other company for us were
Magellanic penguins and imperial cormorants. Finally, Paul and I readied our
scuba equipment and went in. The experience of diving in giant kelp was once
more fantastic, with many collections made and photos taken. How incredibly
lucky we were to be here!

Getting back out, we could not stay around
very long since gale force winds were coming up fast, and we headed back to
Stanley.